Success From The Ground Up

The next time you need a little inspiration to help you get through a rough patch with your business, consider the success stories of entrepreneurs that began with nearly nothing. San Francisco Chronicle shares a couple of the most popular business stories available today.

Henry Ford

He started Ford Motor Company with just $28,000 – and that was not even Ford’s savings. It was money that he had borrowed from a variety of different investors. Ford made good use of the funds. He applied his talents to Ford Motor Company and became the first person to ever mass produce automobiles. Today, Ford Motor Company is a $56 billion dollar company with over $128 billion dollars in annual revenue.

John Paul DeJoria

He worked as a newspaper courier at the very young age of nine, and took jobs as a janitor and a tow truck driver just to make ends meet. DeJoria’s made the smart decision to go into business Paul Mitchell while he was working for a hair care company. The pair took out a meager $700 loan, and turned it into a hair care conglomerate with nearly $1 billion dollars in annual sales. DeJoria now also owns Patron Tequila, which sells more than 2 million cases a year. He has risen from the depths of homelessness to amass a net worth of $4 billion dollars.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs started Apple Computers in 1976 with his partner, Steve Wolzniak. The two men did not have a bunch of venture capital like startups do today. Jobs did, however, have a vision and innovative ideas that helped to thrust Apple into the forefront of the computer industry. Jobs has been the brains behind Apple for years and the company suffered during his departure in the late ’90s. The return of Jobs has led to the resurgence of Apple, and today the company has a market cap of $320 billion dollars.